Page 749 - GREAT EXPECTATIONS
P. 749

Great Expectations


             inquired for Miss Havisham; she was still very ill, though
             considered something better.
               My inn had once been a part of an ancient ecclesiastical
             house, and I dined in a little octagonal common-room,

             like a font. As I was not able to cut my dinner, the old
             landlord with a shining bald  head did it for me. This
             bringing us into conversation, he was so good as to
             entertain me with my own  story - of course with the
             popular feature that Pumblechook was my earliest
             benefactor and the founder of my fortunes.
               ‘Do you know the young man?’ said I.
               ‘Know him!’ repeated the landlord. ‘Ever since he was
             - no height at all.’
               ‘Does he ever come back to this neighbourhood?’
               ‘Ay, he comes back,’ said the landlord, ‘to his great
             friends, now and again, and gives the cold shoulder to the
             man that made him.’
               ‘What man is that?’
               ‘Him that I speak of,’  said the landlord. ‘Mr.
             Pumblechook.’
               ‘Is he ungrateful to no one else?’
               ‘No doubt he would be, if he could,’ returned the
             landlord, ‘but he can’t. And why? Because Pumblechook
             done everything for him.’



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